Love/Hate – Bread

So I’ve started my new class, Introduction to Baking and Pastry.  Ladies I’ve got a little bad news : (  Remember that Babka bread I was telling you about, the one with the chocolate oozing out of the sides and covered all over with delicious milk chocolate with generous sprinkle of powdered sugar.  Well  I don’t think I will be making that in this class, so I don’t have access to a recipe right now.  I’m sorry to have let you down, because I know some of you were waiting on that one.  You can go to a local bakery and have them make it for you, it just may not be the same as the chocolate loaf of love they make here.  On a more positive note, I will be making some desserts like cookies, eclairs and other assorted pastries so I will post those recipes after I’ve made them.  On the first day we made soft dinner rolls and baguettes.  I’ve never made bread from scratch before and I didn’t realize how difficult it was to make good bread.  The ingredients have to be perfect, otherwise you could end up with a pile of useless goo very easily and then have to start all over.  It’s cool though because when you’ve made that bread.. and it comes out smelling good, looking fresh, and hot.. there is almost nothings better.  I mean who doesnt love bread, even though it’s a Love/Hate food.  I’m going to have to be carefull because so far I’ve done pretty good about not stuffing my face with food (well for the most part) and in this class if all I’m going to be doing is eating bread and desserts all day for 2 weeks, it could get ugly.  Below are pictures of what I’ve made so far and what I will be making in the future.  I will do my best to post recipes for this stuff as I progress through the class.  Keep it locked and for all of you people out there who love to cook but just can’t seem to get it right remember your 3 B’s.. Bacon and Butter always make it Better. 

This much fun should be illegal…

So I just started my 3rd class, it is called Traditional European Cuisine.  Basically what I am learning in this class is everything about stewing and braising.  They are both very similar cooking methods with slight differences.  So far we’ve only stewed and braised chicken and beef and oooohhhh man, I’ve never had a more tender piece of meat in my life.  There is a unique technique to it that makes it so successful.  I can’t post the recipes just yet becuase of the format they are in, but once I get them converted I will post them.  The method of production is a pretty lengthy process so I’m not going to go into details but the directions are pretty self explainitory though.  Give them a shot and if you run into trouble just give me a shout. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also I made homemade pasta for the first time.  It was kind of a dissaster at first actually, you have to build a wall with the flour and then put the eggs in the middle and work the eggs slowly into the flour to get a nice even dough.  Well mine didn’t quite work out that way.  Flour and eggs were everywhere, but I was able to recover and so will you if you run into the same problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade Pasta

Braised Beef

Chicken Stew